Big Data Consulting and Training for a Satellite Agency
Customer
The Customer is a satellite agency that collects and processes weather and climate observations.
Challenge
The Customer has a well-orchestrated development program, according to which the agency is planning to launch a new project with satellites orbiting the Earth. They will be collecting and transmitting observation data for weather, climate and environmental monitoring. To be ready on time, the Customer pitched a contractor well in advance and commissioned them to design the architecture of the solution-to-be and recommend the technology stack.
As the project is intended for 25 years, and it’s highly important to have the appropriate architecture, the Customer decided to turn to another consultancy to assess the documentation they had received and chose ScienceSoft for this task. As the solution-to-be relies on big data, they also requested ScienceSoft to prepare and conduct training sessions on big data landscape in general and the suggested technologies in particular.
Solution
ScienceSoft’s big data consulting team started with the onsite visit to the Customer to learn about their business specifics and the solution under consideration. Also, they conducted Q&A sessions with the Customer’s team.
As a next step, our consultants plunged into the provided documentation on the suggested architecture and technology stack. Our team was to carefully examine 1,000+ pages within less than a month, identify the strong points, and reveal gaps or deficiencies, if any.
ScienceSoft’s team has prepared training materials to be presented during the next onsite visit. To introduce the Customer to the big data landscape, our consultants prepared an overview of the existing big data technologies (going far beyond those recommended by the third-party contractor). The overview also included use cases with a specific focus on those that can be relevant to the Customer’s business. As ScienceSoft’s team was to conduct training sessions to both top management and technical team, our consultants devised completely different sets of training materials for each target audience.
ScienceSoft’s team was ready not only to conduct workshops but also to design knowledge checking materials, as well as advise the techniques to assess examinees. However, the Customer chose the format of workshops ending in Q&A sessions.
Apart from this, ScienceSoft provided on-the-job support for the technical staff: during the second onsite visit, our consultants conducted code sessions.
Results
The Customer received an analysis report featuring strong and weak points of the suggested solution. The report also contained recommendations on how to improve the solution. For example, replacing one of the suggested technologies with another, which led to the solution’s increased performance and reliability.
ScienceSoft has prepared 300+ slides of training materials that introduced the big data concept, technologies and examples of their practical application. Among the topics covered, there were NoSQL technologies as well as streaming and batching analytics. The training was conducted in two formats: workshops with Q&A sessions and on-the-job assistance. After the training, all the materials were handed over to the Customer to become their intellectual property.
Methodologies
Q&A sessions, assessment of quality attributes (availability, interoperability, scalability, reliability, maintainability, supportability, performance), solution’s assessment based on technology characteristics (user experience, technology maturity, technology trends, vendor/community support).
